Visa and Worldpay Confirms Coinbase Wasn’t at Fault for Overcharging

The cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase has been accidentally overcharging customers. The customers started pouring complains that they have been charging double, triple and overcharging too.

Bitcoin price hit above $10,000 for the first time in a month since a crash from last month. However, Coinbase customers started complaining of double-charging and sometimes triple-charging or overcharging several times over.

Visa and Worldpay issued a joint statement today confirming that the problem was not Coinbase. Visa said the duplicate transactions are now reversed, and appropriate credits posted to account holders. This is according to a latest joint statement by the two.

“All reversal transactions have now been issuing and should appear on customers’ credit card and debit card accounts within the next few days. We believe the majority of these reversals have already posted to reports.”

Overcharging was happening for cryptocurrencies bought weeks earlier using credit and debit cards. Many users complained about the Coinbase’s Reddit forum. For instance, one person claimed that his purchases attracted 50 new charges totaling to $67,000. He closed his bank account.

Before the issuing of the statement, Coinbase said the problem was a visa.

“We immediately began an investigation, and through contacts with the card networks and the card issuers and our processor, determines that this was an action taken by Visa— Coinbase did not do it,” Dan Romero, vice president and general manager at Coinbase, says Fortune.

Visa using new classification code

Visa is using a new merchant category code for cryptocurrency purchases since last month. This code classification treats Visa purchases on Coinbase as cash advances.

New classification means the trades attract high fees from banks and merchants, as much as 10 percent. Additionally, the bank is no longer allowing cryptocurrency purchases with credit cards.

Implications

In recent months, Coinbase is trying to improve its customer service after accepting the fact of struggling to keep the step with the demand for its cryptocurrency offering.

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David Kariuki is a journalist who has a wide range of experience reporting about modern technology solutions including cryptocurrencies. A graduate of Kenya's Moi University, he also writes for Hypergrid Business, Cryptomorrow, and Cleanleap, and has previously worked for Resources Quarterly and Construction Review magazines.